Incidents occurred late last night in Skopje, during Albanian flag day celebrations.

Young Albanians, among other things, tore up and burned North Macedonian flags in Skopje’s Albanian quarter, Čire, in the city center, while shots were fired in the air.

North Macedonia’s Interior Minister Pance Toskovski stated that ten people were arrested for last night’s incidentsfor participating in clashes with the police and for inciting ethnic, racial and religious hatred. Those arrested are young, including minors.

The episodes condemned all parties in North Macedonia.

The ruling VMRO-DPMNE noted that the provocation of last night’s incidents has a political background and that the goal of their instigators was, through ethnic issues and divisions, to impose themselves on the public debate, in the absence of a convincing political proposal.

THE Prime Minister of North Macedonia and leader of VMRO-DPMNE Christian Mickoski condemned the desecration of the country’s national flag and noted that “the government will respond strongly to all challenges and attempts to destabilize the country». He said that he expects such challenges in the future as well and called on citizens to remain calm and not succumb to provocations.

The opposition and largest Albanian party in North Macedonia, Ali Ahmeti’s DUI, accused the police of using excessive force. This party noted that the police intervention last night in Skopje caused unnecessary tensions and created a climate of confrontation, violating the citizens’ right to celebrate freely.

Several thousand Skopje Albanians, mostly young people, driving cars covered with the Albanian flag celebrated in the main streets of the city last night, on the occasion of the Albanian flag day (November 28) and later gathered in the Albanian-speaking quarter of Skopje . The police had closed the main streets of the city. In Tetovo, a city of 80,000 inhabitants in the northwestern part of the country, which is mostly inhabited by Albanians, flags of “Greater Albania” were displayed on the streets of the city.

Albanians constitute the 25% of the population of North Macedonia.

In Skopje, a city of about 600,000 inhabitants, the Albanians number about 120,000.

The incidents caused concern in a large part of North Macedonia’s public opinion, as there had not been a similar incident in several years.

Despite the fact that international relations in North Macedonia have softened in recent years, they remain fragile. In 2001, armed Albanians of the former “National Liberation Army” (UCK) were involved in months-long clashes with the then Macedonian government forces, which almost led to the dismemberment of the country. Those conflicts came to an end in August 2001 with the signing of the Ohrid Peace Accords, which gave the country’s Albanian population rights they had been demanding since the country’s independence in 1991.